Sprint announces $25 unlimited data plan, new pay-by-the-minute network

Mobile network operator Sprint has been wrangling the prepaid wireless business since well before its acquisition of Virgin Mobile USA last year. While the network consistently lost "postpaid" contract subscribers, it consistently gained more prepaid customers than any other major mobile carrier.

In the company's earnings call two weeks ago, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said "I think we're really going to start to pick up prepaid momentum in the second half of the year … Prepaid, in terms of its percentage of the overall wireless industry, is going to grow, so our turnaround is really focused on prepaid becoming a more and more important part of the company and doing better in that market."

Today, Sprint announced the brand strategy for prepaid wireless moving forward, who it will apply to, and how much they will offer.

The Virgin Mobile USA brand will continue to be focused on the younger crowd of users who text more than they talk. Plans will revolve around unlimited data, messaging and email with no incremental fees and taxes.

New Virgin Mobile Plans

• $25 -- 300 voice minutes, unlimited messaging, email, data
• $40 -- 1,200 voice minutes, unlimited messaging, email, data
• $60 -- Unlimited voice, messaging, email, data
• $10 -- Blackberry data service charge

Additionally, Sprint today talked more about plans to launch a new "pay-by-the-minute" mobile brand targeting customers who spend less than $30 per month on mobile service. The company said roughly 63% of the no-contract market chooses to pay by the minute or by the day, so it will be launching this new brand in approximately 16 markets later this month. It still does not have a name, and the markets where it will launch have not been specified. Further information from Sprint is pending.